Supreme Court yet to decide if it will take CFPB case

A list of cases published Tuesday that the Supreme Court has either accepted or rejected did not include a challenge to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's constitutionality, suggesting that the high court will decide at a later date whether to take the case.

Legal experts believe the Supreme Court could still decide to hear the case, Selia Law v. CFPB. The lawsuit involves a California law firm that claimed it was not required to respond to a CFPB civil investigative demand because it claimed the bureau is unconstitutional. At issue is a statutory provision that a CFPB head can only be fired "for cause," not simply at the president's discretion.

Both the Justice Department and CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger have urged the high court to accept the case, arguing that the president should have greater authority to fire a CFPB chief. Republicans have claimed for years that the "for cause" provision of the Dodd-Frank Act gives a CFPB leader, who does not answer to a board or commission, too much unchecked power.

A ruling that would allow the president to fire a sitting CFPB director without cause could have huge ramifications for nearly two dozen federal agencies with a single-director structure, such as the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

There are several cases in the court system claiming that limits on a president's ability to fire a CFPB director are unconstitutional. Earlier this month, a Mississippi payday lender, All American Check Cashing, filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to grant a review of its constitutional challenge to the agency's structure.